King James Version Bible (Annotated): Old and New Testaments

King James Bible
Holy Bible KJV 1611 Complete - Original Translation
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The King James Version (KJV) is a translation commissioned by the Church of England in 1604 and the work continued till 1611. However, it wasn't the first translation into English from the original Hebrew, and some portions in Aramaic. Two earlier English translations had been approved by the Anglican Church, but this third version was commissioned in response to some perceived mistakes and flaws in earlier translations which were found to be unsatisfactory by the Puritans.

King James VI ascended the English throne at the age of thirteen months after his mother Mary Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate in his favor. With his reign, the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland came under the Crown. The Jacobean Age was famous for the flowering of literary and artistic movements. Shakespeare, Marlowe, John Donne and a host of poets, playwrights and writers contributed to the rich literary environment.

The KJV was ordered so that it would reflect the Episcopal structure of the Anglican Church and the ordained stature of English clergy. More than 47 translators worked on it. The Old Testament was directly translated from the original Hebrew and Aramaic, while the New Testament was from a Greek version. A Catechism was added to The Book of Common Prayer. The KJV soon gained popularity and supplanted all other versions over a very short period.

King James's Bible is used as the name for the 1611 translation (on a par with the "Genevan Bible" or the "Rhemish Testament") in Charles Butler's Horae Biblicae (first published 1797).Other works from the early 19th century confirm the widespread use of this name on both sides of the Atlantic: it is found both in a "Historical sketch of the English translations of the Bible" published in Massachusetts in 1815,and in an English publication from 1818, which explicitly states that the 1611 version is "generally known by the name of King James's Bible".This name was also found as King James' Bible (without the final "s"): for example in a book review from 1811.The phrase "King James's Bible" is used as far back as 1715, although in this case it is not clear whether this is a name or merely a description.

The use of Authorized Version, capitalised and used as a name, is found as early as 1814.For some time before this, descriptive phrases such as "our present, and only publicly authorised version" (1783), "our Authorized version" (1792), and "the authorized version" (1801, uncapitalised) are found. The Oxford English Dictionary records a usage in 1824. In Britain, the 1611 translation is generally known as the "Authorized Version" today.

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